


A Sky Full Of Stars

by Lara234



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Mass Effect AU, Minor Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Rewrite, SuperCorp, all the feels, bit of a slow burn, mass effect 2 storyline, super gang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lara234/pseuds/Lara234
Summary: Two years after Commander Kara Danvers repelled invading Reapers bent on the destruction of organic life, a mysterious new enemy has emerged. On the fringes of known space, something is silently abducting entire human colonies. Now Kara must work with Cadmus, a ruthless organization devoted to human survival at any cost, to stop the most terrifying threat mankind has ever faced. To even attempt this perilous mission, Kara must assemble the galaxy's most elite team and command the most powerful ship ever built. Even then, they say it would be suicide. Commander Danvers intends to prove them wrong.A Supercorp/Supergirl Mass Effect AU





	1. A New Beginning

Somewhere in the deep depths of the Milky Way, a lone figure looked out from the hull of a space station to watch the scene before her. A cold dying star was bursting with flames and solar flares in hues of orange, red and occasionally blue. It was a breathtaking sight to see, and not one Lena Luthor was sure she’d ever forget.

 Lena felt goose bumps rise over her skin, even through the material of the tight fitting white cat suit; whether it was because of the dying star, or the feeling of the watchful eyes behind her she didn’t know. She hated that the woman had such a power over her at times. Swallowing the lump of nerves in her throat she spoke out.

 “Supergirl did everything right, more than we could have hoped for,” she began. “Saving the Citadel and council, humanity’s place in the galaxy is stronger than ever...but it’s not enough.”

 She craned her head round to face the seated figure behind her. The Illusive Woman, or better known to Lena as Lillian Luthor, perched in her chair, smoking a cigarette casually. She was dressed in a smart tailored suit, and her greying blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun. Her pale eyes bore into Lena as she replied.

 “Humanity may have a seat on the council, but Supergirl remains our best hope,”

 “But they’re sending her to fight Geth. Geth!” Lena exclaimed, her Irish accent breaking through slightly. “You and I know they’re not the real threat. The Reapers are still out there”

 She paced towards Lillian who remained unfazed, scrolling through a datapad in her hand.

 “And it’s up to us to stop them; we won’t fail like your brother did,” Lillian said coolly, swiping on the datapad to project a holograph of Commander Danvers, otherwise known as Supergirl before them.

 “The council will never trust Cadmus; they’ll never accept our help. Even after everything humanity has accomplished,” Lena spat, clenching her fists. “But Supergirl...they’ll follow her, she’s a hero, a bloody icon. If we lose Supergirl, humanity may as well follow.”

 Lena watched as Lillian held up the cigarette back to her mouth and inhaled deeply, before the puffs of smoke flew out past her lips. The older woman stared back at Lena, somewhat menacingly before making her demand.

 “Then see to it that we _don’t_ lose her.”

 

* * *

 

 

For the first time in what felt like ages, Commander Kara Danvers could relax.

 Well, _sort of_.

 Flopping on her bed, the blonde felt her entire body sink into the soft mattress and let out a satisfied sigh. The SSV Normandy’s captain’s quarters did have that little bit of extra luxury compared to other star frigates she’d been on. Kara had spent all of the afternoon cycle briefing, or rather being questioned, about her current mission from the council, who had assigned her the task of wiping out the last of the Geth resistance following the invasion of the Citadel.

 They continued to completely ignore the fact that the Geth were not the actual problem, and that it was the Reapers, a ancient synthetic race that were hell bent on wiping out civilisation every 50,000 years, that they really had to worry about.She’d spent hours ranting to the Turian, Salarian and Asari members about this, but once again they completely pushed her warnings to one side as if she hadn’t just saved their butts from complete annihilation.

 The Normandy and all its crew had been cruising through the outer rims of the galaxy for the past few days, searching for Geth and hoping to quell public concern in another one of the council’s PR campaigns. And there was something happening, a handful of ships had gone missing, but whether it was the Reapers, the Geth or just some slavers remained to be seen. Kara groaned, what good was being a Spectre if she couldn’t escape the clutches of the council and pick her own missions?

 It was hard to believe that it had only been a few months since she’d joined her cousin, Captain Clark Kent, onboard this same ship as his newly promoted XO. They were both the last remaining survivors of Krypton; a small planet in the Rao system, which had been at the pinnacle for humanity’s research and scientific breakthroughs, not to mention producing some of the finest man-made biotics the galaxy had ever seen. But all that had been wiped out when the planet had seemingly destabilized and then self destructed, destroying the entire colony. The only two known survivors had been 13 year old Kara and 19 year old Clark, who’d been sent off on respective shuttles destined for Earth by their parents only a few minutes before the destruction. Once they’d gotten through the rigorous Alliance refugee re-homing process, they two Kryptonians had settled with new families and grown up apart.

 Standing together onboard the Normandy with Clark had felt like everything in life had aligned for the young blonde. He had become a shining example of Krypton’s legacy...’Superman’ they called him and Kara wanted desperately to prove her worth too.

 The Normandy SR-1 had been built as a joint effort between the Turian hierarchy and the Alliance in a show of…well, an alliance between the species, and the maiden flight was supposed to have been a routine one. But then they’d gotten the distress signal from Eden Prime and everything after just escalated; Prothean beacons, becoming the first Human Spectre, a crazed, disgraced Lex Luthor and his indoctrination, saving the Council and stopping the Reapers. And then it was weeks of endless charity and PR events she had to attend as Saviour of the Citadel...the media had even coined her nickname ‘Supergirl’ after finding out who she was related to. So it was no wonder Kara felt like she needed to take a break. Thank god for her crew though, they’d really pulled her through it all. Especially her partner in crime and adoptive sister Alex, who’d just showed up to Kara’s quarters with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa.

 “Knock knock _Supergirl_ ,” Alex grinned as she stepped into the room. “I take it the meeting with the council went well?”

 “If by well you mean disastrous!” Kara exclaimed as she sat up and took the drink from her sister. “I keep trying to tell them that we should be focusing on the Reapers, not floating around looking for Geth. But they wouldn’t listen as per usual, even with Clark on our side; they still dismissed it as fairytale nonsense.”

 Clark had recently been appointed as the first human member of the council as a reward for the Alliance’s role in saving the Citadel. He was reluctant to accept pointing out that Morgan Edge, a Citadel ambassador and lifelong politician, would be much more suited. As the first human Spectre, and saviour of the Citadel, the decision had fallen on Kara and she’d picked her cousin without hesitation. Even though he’d sort of helped her in warning the council about the Reapers, Kara still suspected Edge was just another slime ball power grabber, and there was no way she’d let him have the glory.

 Joining her sister on the edge of the bed, Alex scoffed and took a large gulp of her own cocoa.

 “Yeah that sounds like the kind of crap they’d pull. We always had to deal with that at C-Sec,” she mumbled. “Covering up scandals, assuring the public everything was fine...yadda yadda.”

 Before joining her sister Alex had worked at C-Sec, the Citadel’s law enforcement, for the past few years. It was only when Lex Luthor came along did she come onboard in helping Kara stop him after C-Sec and the council denied her requests to invest the man further. ‘Lex Luthor was untouchable’ the council claimed. His company, L-Corp, provided the council races with research and technology that was too vital to lose. The same technology which Kara now assumed was Reaper influenced in some way. Snapping out of her thoughts, the blonde watched as Alex sat in her own little world, reminiscing about her good old days on the force. The commander felt a wave of guilt wash over her.

 “Do you miss C-Sec?” Kara asked. “Cause if you want to go back I won’t stop you…I know you didn’t sign up to hunt Geth.”

 “I do miss it at times,” Alex admitted softly, before smiling at her sister. “But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you go anywhere on your own again! Last time I did you ended up with a Prothean cipher in your brain.”

 “Yeah, yeah, looking after me, I’m sure that’s why you want to stay onboard and not because of a certain Quarian called Maggi’Sawyah nar Rayya.”

 Alex’s face turned bright red at Kara’s comment, which just confirmed to the blonde that her sister had been crushing hard on the Quarian engineer that had joined their squad. Maggi’Sawyah nar Rayya, or Maggie as the human crew called her, was only a couple of years younger than Kara, but she was also a mechanical genius when it came to engineering. Not to mention how popular her sassy and flirtatious behaviour was among the crew. There’d been a few times Kara had caught her and Alex exchanging looks and some light hearted banter when the pair were alone.

 “Maggie and I are _just friends_!” Alex insisted, trying to play it cool. “I’m staying to look out for you; to protect you, not just because of the friendships I’ve made with Maggie, James, Sam, Winn, or J’onn-”

 “-okay, I know you’re older than me and you have this whole big sister act to uphold, but let’s not forget I’m your commanding officer here Alex,” Kara reminded her jokingly, loving the fact that her sister was getting so worked up.

 “Can commanding officers of the Alliance still get told off by their moms?” Alex retorted, as she pretended to look in deep thought. “Shall we go down to the med bay and find out, hmm?”

 “She’s our mom but technically I’m Eliza’s superior officer too!” Kara whined, puffing out her chest.

 Kara’s adopted mom, Dr. Eliza Danvers was also the Normandy’s chief onboard medical doctor, and was in charge of everyone’s health onboard, as well as keeping her two daughters from squabbling all the time.

 “Oooh look at me, I’m Commander Danvers, and I’m _so_ superior-”

 “Alex...”

 " ** _Ugh will you two stop your bickering?  I’m trying to fly over here!”_** the voice of Winn Schott rang out over the ship’s intercom.

 Winn was an Alliance flight lieutenant and the Normandy’s trusted pilot, who’d pulled them through some very tight spots during their hunt for Lex Luthor and the Reapers. He suffered from a rare brittle bone disease that meant that a sudden sharp movement could cause multiple broken bones, so he rarely left the confines of his chair on the bridge. However, the disease didn’t stop him from being possibly the best pilot in the Alliance or from making wisecracks at everyone’s expense.

 “Winn don’t you have better things to be telling me rather than listening in on my conversations?” Kara scolded.

  ** _“Uh...yes of course Commander! Disengaging FTL drives, emission sinks active, board is green...we are running silent.”_**

 ** _“We’re wasting our time here Commander,”_** Navigator Vaquez joined in from the bridge. **_“Four days of searching up and down this sector and we haven’t found any signs of Geth activity.”_**

  ** _“Three ships went missing here in the past month, something happened to them,”_** Winn muttered.

 Winn and Vaquez did not get along at all; with the former preferring to work on flying alone without the pesky navigator yelling him coordinates every minute. Kara and Alex shared a glance and smirked at their pilot’s grumpy tone. Their attention was drawn back by the voice of a young ensign informing them of an unidentified cruiser she’d picked up on the long range scanners that didn’t match any of the Alliance’s signatures. Kara bolted up off the bed, and stood ready to take whatever action was needed. It could just be a shuttle full of slavers, or the Geth...but it could also be a Reaper ship like their old friend _Sovereign_.

  ** _“Cruiser is changing course, now on intercept trajectory!”_**

 ** _"That can’t be, our stealth systems are engaged,”_** Vaquez spluttered. **“There’s no way a Geth ship could-”**

 **“It’s not the Geth!”** Winn realized before yelling out, **“Brace for evasive manoeuvres!”**

Kara and Alex found themselves thrown to the floor as Winn suddenly dipped the Normandy forward and engaged the thrusters to try out run the mysterious ship. Adrenaline kicked in, and Kara quickly picked herself off the ground, and hauled Alex up to her feet also. Suddenly, a large explosion below sounded out as what felt like a laser beam of some sort, ripped through the side of the Normandy’s hull. Alarms began ringing, sounding the evacuation process. Whatever had hit them must have been bad; it had caused that much damage to her ship with one blast? Sure that could only be Reaper tech?

 Kara and Alex sprinted out of the blonde’s room and headed straight towards the nearby armory to strap on their spacesuits. Winn’s voice rang out throughout the Normandy, keeping everyone updated on the ship’s integrity. He forced the ship to lurch to one side, as it tried and failed to avoid another attack from the laser beam.

**_“Kinetic barriers down, multiple hull breaches. Weapons offline...somebody get that fire out!”_ **

Kara managed to somehow clip on her helmet, and felt the oxygen supply kick in, just as Winn informed them the atmospheric systems were bust. By this point there were fires raging in every corner, explosions still booming as technical equipment failed and alarms were letting out high pitched ringing.

 One of Kara’s squad members, Staff Lieutenant James Olsen, came sprinting up to the two sisters in a mad rush. He’d been part of the blonde’s crew that had touched down on Eden Prime, and also had been the one that Kara had pushed out of the way when the Prothean artefact had zapped her.  Later on a remote planet called Virmire, she’d found herself faced with an impossible decision to save him or another one of their teammates, Gunnery Chief Lucy Lane, from the clutches of Lex Luthor and his Geth. With a heavy heart, she’d chosen James as Lucy was already protecting the bomb they’d planted to blow Luthor’s base to smithereens. The bomb went off and Lucy sacrificed herself to make sure it happened.

 “Commander, the distress beacon is ready for launch. Will the Alliance get here in time?” he asked, trying to hide his concern at the situation they found themselves in.

 The ship rattled suddenly and James fell forward towards Kara, who caught the much taller man by his shoulders, steadying him on his feet.

 “The Alliance won’t abandon us,” the commander reassured, as she grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and tried to douse some of the flames that were raging around the ship. “We just need to hold on. Get everyone onto the escape shuttles.”

 “Winn’s still in the cockpit, he won’t abandon the ship,” James explained. “I’m not going either.”

 “Me too Kara,” Alex joined in defiantly. “I’m not leaving your side.”

 Kara rolled her eyes as she threw the now empty extinguisher aside. Of all the times her sister chose to be stubborn, it had to be now.

 “I need you and James to get the crew and injured onto the evac shuttles,” the blonde explained, trying not to snap at her sister. “I’ll take care of Winn.”

 James nodded and ran off to complete Kara’s orders, whilst Alex hesitated. Just as Kara turned to leave, another console blew up by her side, with the fireball narrowly missing her.

“Kara...” Alex started, obviously unsure if she should leave her sister alone in the blazing inferno.

 “Go now Alex! That’s an order!” Kara barked before running in the direction of the bridge to save Winn.

 By the time Kara actually made it to the cockpit, she’d escaped the fires of the lower decks only to have space-walked through the bridge. Its roof had been blown off completely, leaving the once hustling command center now exposed to the vacuum of space. She could see that all the escape shuttles had managed to eject from the ship, meaning Alex and James had gotten the remaining crew to safety. Hopefully there weren’t too many causalities and Kara prayed that Eliza had made it out too.

 Meanwhile Winn had some sense in him to temporarily block off the helm from the bridge with a barrier of some sort but other than that he was still sat fixed to the Normandy controls, yelling out maydays on the comms. With her magnetic boots holding her to the Normandy in the open bridge, Kara could only slowly walk to the barrier until she passed though. Once she did, she dashed over to where the pilot was winning a losing battle in trying to save the broken spaceship from being pulled into a nearby planet’s gravitational orbit.

 “Come on Winn! We have to get out of here!” Kara yelled at the stubborn man as she finally reached his chair.

 “No! I won’t abandon the Normandy, I can still save her!”

 “The Normandy’s lost! Going down with the ship won’t change that!”

 Winn’s body sagged in the chair and he looked as if he was about to concede defeat when all of a sudden his eyes lit up in fear.

 “Commander they’re firing aga-!”

 The pair of them watched in horror as the helm of the ship shuddered violently when the orange beam of mysterious ship’s massive weapon sliced through what remained of the bridge where Kara had been only moments before. Whipping round, Kara grabbed Winn by the forearm and all but hoisted him onto her back, ignoring his yelps of pain as she accidentally cracked his bones. They had no time to worry about how gentle she was being.

 “We need to go...now!” she grunted as she carried the pilot towards the escape pod located within the airlock to the right of the cockpit.

 “Watch the arm!” he cried as Kara set him down inside the pod in the nick of time.

 The Normandy was now tearing apart at the seams, chunks of metal flying off every second. Kara had only just finished strapping Winn in when a powerful blast knocked her out and away from the pod to the paneled wall opposite. By this point Kara knew she only had mere seconds before the entire helm would explode apart with Winn still stuck in the pod that had yet to launch. And it could only launch from the control panel that was in front of her on the wall that was barely holding together. Winn would be safe but she’d be sealing her own fate.

 She glanced at Winn and the pilots eyes widened when he realized what she was about to do. Gripping tightly to the wall, she slammed her palm down on the control.

 “Kara!” Winn yelled out, but she didn’t hear him.

 The doors closed and the pod’s thrusters kicked in, firing the shuttle away from the corpse of the Normandy. At the same time the wall Kara was holding on to collapsed and crumbled into space, sending Kara flying into the empty void among shards of metal, towards the planet nearby.

 There was nothing but silence and the sound of her own sharp, ragged breathing as she watched the skeleton the Normandy fall apart. Warning lights blared up on her HUD, snapping her out of her mesmerized state, and it was only then that Kara noticed her oxygen supply was compromised. Floating around, she scrambled her arm behind her back and felt the multiple faint blasts of precious oxygen escaping past her gloved fingertips. Her panting turned to rasps, and Kara felt her throat and lungs burn from the lack of air. Black spots started forming in front of her eyes and her head began to swim. Realization kicked in that she was dying. This was how it ended.

 Seconds passed and the blonde’s muscles went slack, her hands stopped grasping at the air that was no longer pouring out of her suit and she could no longer feel the pain from her lungs. She thought of her crew, of Eliza, of Clark, and lastly of Alex before her vision faded to and she slipped away into nothing.

Supergirl's body hurled towards the isolated planet below as the wreckage of the Normandy rained down with her.


	2. The Lazarus Project

The mysterious attack on the Normandy was unexpected. Lena kicked herself for days after she heard the news, and it was safe to say Lillian wasn’t exactly pleased either.

_Then see to it that we don’t lose her.’_

They had been the last words The Illusive Woman had instructed her with before, hey whaddaya know, The Normandy was blown to smithereens and Supergirl went missing; presumably dead. Luckily, Lena and her genius mind had a failsafe in motion for this kind of thing happening; _The Lazarus Project_. All she needed was Cadmus’ best medical team, a facility, millions of credits and Lazarus herself. The first three were easy to acquire once she got her mother’s approval, but the latter? That was where it got _difficult._

The survivors of the Normandy crew were shaken and lost without their commander that had held them all together. All of them seemed to drift apart in the following weeks after the tragedy. As the Cadmus squadrons visited the planet of the Normandy wreck to search for any remains, Lena meanwhile kept tabs on all of the said crew’s whereabouts, just in case something became useful to Cadmus. 

And one of them did become useful; the asari archeologist, Samantha Arias, who had formed quite a close relationship with Kara Danvers, put her concerns of working with Cadmus to one side and retrieved the body for them. How close the two had been, Lena didn’t know, but when she met the alien woman, she did seem very motivated to find her ex commander.

Lena had overseen the whole process of course, and now as she walked over to the large hanger where the recovery teams were unloading the pod with Supergirl’s remains off of the asari’s shuttle, she couldn’t help but grin. Samantha had brought the pod to the new medical space station Cadmus had commissioned especially for Project Lazarus, where Lena could complete her work and hopefully revive Commander Danvers. The capsule, which looked an awful lot like one of those 21st century type fridges, glided smoothly over the polished deck as it was guided towards the young operative by three Cadmus agents, and followed closely behind by Samantha Arias. The blue woman looked considerably exhausted and worn out.

The men brought the capsule to a halt, before Lena tentatively opened it to reveal what she had to work with. It was far worse than what she had expected...there was very little of Supergirl left to save. It was going to be a monumental undertaking, and she’d need to use all of her knowledge and research to do it. Lena was just grateful they had some of Lex’s resources from L-Corp to utilize.

“Take it to the main laboratory, and inform The Illusive Woman that Commander Danvers has been recovered, and that The Lazarus Project will know commence,” she instructed to one of the agents.

The asari’s sad eyes followed the pod as it was guided through the hangar doors and out of her sight. In an unusual move for Lena, the operative placed a comforting hand on the alien’s shoulder. Samantha immediately flinched at the contact.

“You did well Dr. Arias, we were right to put our faith in you,” Lena praised. “Kara must have meant a lot to you...I just wish I had better news to tell you.”

“W-what do you mean?” Sam croaked, her voice raw with emotion.

“We may not be able to restore Kara to her old self after all,” Lena admitted, more so to herself than the asari. “The body is in worse shape than I expected, there were some preservation systems in the pod but they were hardly optimal…”

“Then I don’t see the point Miss Luthor,” Sam muttered. “Maybe I don’t know how your human traditions work but, I really think you should let her rest. This isn’t what I brought Kara back for.”

“Look Sam,” Lena began. “I can’t promise you this will work, but my boss is more hopeful about our prospects. Using the L-Corp technology and Lex’s resources-”

“Yet another reason why I can’t believe I’m trusting you on this,” Sam growled.

Lena internally groaned, even in death her brother was still hindering her progress and the reputation of Cadmus.

“As I was saying, we’re pouring everything we have into the project but it’s going to take time, maybe years and that’s if it works at all. I wouldn’t sit around waiting here for your girlfriend to come back.”

Sam whipped her head round to face the raven haired woman and gave her a confused look.

“Girlfriend?” The asari questioned in disbelief. “You have been fed some wrong intel Miss Luthor, Kara wasn’t my romantic partner.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed…I mean your determination and resolve to get the commander’s body back…”

The asari started to chuckle lightly, leaving Lena feeling almost embarrassed. How could she have miscalculated that the two weren’t together? Why was the asari so invested in her commanding officer she’d only known for a few months?

“If you’re going to bring Commander Danvers back from the dead then you have a few things to learn about her first Miss Luthor.”

“Um like what?”

“You know before I joined the Normandy, I didn’t have a lot of friends…well actually I had none, which is pretty much unheard of for an asari maiden like me; most my age are working in Omega or worse,” Sam explained rambling on. “When Kara rescued me and let me join her crew, she became so much more than my commanding officer. She was my friend, and like every other member of the Normandy, I was inspired by her brilliance, selflessness and kindness she showed to pretty much everyone she met. Kara taught me to trust in myself and my abilities, she was there to lean on when you needed her and she never gave up on anyone. She’d always try to the end to save them; I’d thought you’d know that, seeing how she practically snapped your brother out of his Reaper indoctrination so he could end his life with his own hand.”

Lena was at a loss for words, all the feelings she had shoved deep deep down about her brother’s death threatened to spill over, but on the surface she remained stoic and showed no emotion when looking at Sam. She wouldn’t give the asari the satisfaction of seeing her weakness and letting her know she’d hit a nerve. Besides, Supergirl had been a hero, but was she as great and the alien before her was describing? Probably; never believe the hype. Lena steeled herself, clenching her jaw and coughed to regain her composure.

“Thank you for your insight Dr. Arias, I’ll be sure to do some research into Kara’s personal life for further information, should we get past the initial revival. Cadmus thanks you for service.”

Sam narrowed her eyes, not convinced, before she turned-on her heel and started walking back to her shuttle. Not even looking back to spare the raven haired operative a glance, the asari called out to Lena.

“You’ll see for yourself Miss Luthor, and I hope that should you revive her, you get to see why Kara is so much more than what you think of her.”

 

* * *

 

_Two years later_

 

Somehow Lena and her team had done the impossible; they had managed to bring Kara Danvers back to life. It was astonishing really, considering when Lena had peered into that capsule there’d been little more than a charred mangled mess of a body. Now two years down the line and millions of credits down, things were looking hopeful.

Kara’s recovery rate had been remarkable; it turned out that there was some truth to that mysterious myth about Kryptonian’s been made of stronger stuff than the average human. Rumors had been rife before and after Krypton’s destruction that the isolated colony had forgone the natural reproduction methods and had been birthing genetically modified ‘superhumans,’ who healed faster, were more intelligent and were able to withstand a lot more damage than a regular human. Lex’s past research into Kryptonians had proved to be the deciding factor in the commander’s recovery.

Lena knew her brother had been best friends with Clark Kent during his youth, as the two had gone through the Alliance Academy together. However she also knew that the reason the pair had fallen out was due to Lex conducting secret research on Clark and his superhuman abilities and on Krypton’s science. The animosity between the two friends spilled over onto a full on fist fight, with Lex eventually being thrown out of the Alliance, and Clark confiscating his all of his research. Of course it had taken some time, but Cadmus managed to acquire her brother’s past work and now it had been put to good use in helping Kent’s cousin Kara Danvers. Lena had to admit that her brother had gone somewhat too far in using his friend as a _lab rat_ , however, Krypton should have never held back in revealing their scientific breakthroughs to the rest of humanity. That was why her mother, Lillian Luthor created Cadmus.

Cadmus supports the principle that any methods of advancing humanity's ascension are entirely justified, including activities that some deemed illegal. Lena accepted that the methods they used were often brutal, but also that history will vindicate them. And surely The Lazarus Project was one of these breakthroughs; after all she’d brought a human being back to bloody life!

Okay maybe she was getting ahead of herself, they were very close to achieving that feat. Kara’s physical self had been rebuilt and brought back to life, but she was yet to wake up and access whether her memories and personality were the same. Lena was keeping her sedated as she continued to heal; should Kara wake up now for any reason, the pain would be enough to throw her into shock and possibly cardiac arrest.  The commander was like Lena’s own precious piece of artwork, and she’d be damned if some miscalculation fucked it all up now.

It was one late Wednesday night when that was very nearly put to the test.

Project wise, everything was running smoothly. The commander was in the secure laboratory on their space station and was being constantly monitored as her recovery continued on track. Lena however had been having the shittiest week in her personal life, The Illusive Woman was constantly hounding her for updates on their progress. Even though Supergirl had healed at a much quicker rate than expected, it wasn’t enough to satisfy Lillian. But that was nothing new there for Lena, her mother never expected anything less than perfect from her, and no matter how hard she tried, nothing she accomplished would ever be good enough in her mother’s eyes.

Aside from The Illusive Woman making her existence a living hell, Lena had issues with her love life also. She’d got involved in a physical relationship with Jack Spheer on the station. He was her Executive Officer in the project, and oversaw the security of the facility. After a hard day of reconstructing Kara Danvers’ facial features and then one too many drinks in her office, the two had blown off some steam together. Lena hated to admit it, but the entire time all she could picture was those piercing blue eyes of the commander she’d been staring into all afternoon.

The weeks passed and Jack was none the wiser every time they fooled around to where her mind was really drifting to. This was pathetic really, fantasizing about a woman who lay comatose in the lab three doors down. Lena needed to put a stop to it. It was that Wednesday, just as they were both coming down from their high, that she decided that she needed to end things with Jack.

“This can’t go on anymore,” Lena said as she was pulling her uniform back on.

“What?” the man spluttered, his undershirt halfway over his head, muffling his voice.

“You and me. It’s highly unprofessional, not to mention completely irresponsible.”

“Why? Lena…I thought we had something special between us?” the XO replied, looking at her with those puppy dog eyes of his.

“I’m afraid not Jack.”

“Maybe if you’d just let yourself try…?”

Lena’s heart sunk for him, she really hadn’t expected Jack to catch feelings of all things. She mentally shoved the guilt she felt to one side and turned on that air of authority she held about her; back straight, hands on hips and a strong glare. She needed to be harsh otherwise the poor man would never get it.

“Operative Spheer, that’s an order. _Leave it alone_ …for both our sakes.”

Lena really did mean it as a way of protecting him too. No doubt the longer this went on; the sooner The Illusive Woman would find out and Lena could guarantee her mother would find a way of using it against them both in the future. After she said her bit, Lena swiftly exited the quarters, giving Jack some time to let her words sink in and for her to go check up upon the commander.

She reached the entry to the secure lab and was baffled to find that the doors were already unlocked. Someone was in there alone with Supergirl, which couldn’t be good. It was past midnight so why would anyone aside from herself, be up and working at this hour? Readying herself in case of a fight, Lena cautiously entered the laboratory.

The room’s only permanent occupant, Supergirl, lay still on the gurney, with multiple tubes and wires hooked onto her. Her eyes were closed shut and her chest rose and fell with each breath she took. The ceiling directly above projected out a small laser beam which was rigged up to a giant computer in the corner. This constantly monitored Kara’s heart rate and everything else, even down to the slightest twitch of her finger. But there was one abnormality to this usually peaceful scene. Lena’s chief medical officer, Chet Miner was hunched over the small control panel next to commander.

“Miner?” she questioned, startling the man as she made her entrance known.

“Lena!” he yelped, eyes bulging in shock as he spun round to face his superior. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here,” she replied dryly.

“But it’s s-so late; I’d thought you’d be asleep by now?”

“I was finishing up some reports for The Illusive Woman in my office. I came to check on Lazarus before I finished for the night,” Lena lied before she turned her suspicions on him. “What are _you_ doing in here at this hour Miner?”

“Well,” Miner began, nervously fidgeting with his hands by his sides. “I’ve b-been getting some odd spikes in the subject’s brain activity…you see her vitals are all hooked up to this datapad I have in my quarters to monitor stuff like this and well, um, I came in here to check everything was alright?”

Lena narrowed her eyes, not exactly sold on Miner’s story. He was a strange man to start with, one that she hadn’t exactly enjoyed working alongside. As if on cue and before Lena could interrogate Miner any further, the beeping on Kara’s heart monitor began to speed up rapidly. The two Cadmus operatives’ attention was drawn to the sudden movement of the commander as she began to shift on the bed. The laser beam noticed the unusual change and sent a warning to the computer that began to sound an alarm out.

“Fuck!” the raven haired woman cursed as she strode over to the bed in a panic.

“It’s those spikes I was telling you about!” Miner reported as his eyes fixed on the reports the computer was giving out. “She’s reacting to outside stimuli, showing an awareness of her surroundings…damn, Lena, _she’s waking up_!”

Sure enough, the form on the bed shifted, and a pair of eyes fluttered open. The heart rate monitor instantly sky rocketed into dangerous figures; Kara was confused, scared and feeling a hell of a lot of pain. This was not good.

“Damn it Miner! She’s not ready yet, give her the sedative!” Lena barked over her shoulder at the medical chief.

A weak hand grabbed her wrist, drawing the operative’s attention down to the patient on the bed below her. Those same piercing blue eyes that had been haunting her for weeks were now staring at Lena semi-consciously, but vibrantly alive with agony. The operative carefully, lowered the commander’s hand that was still clutching her wrist and gave it a light squeeze.

“Kara, don’t try to move,” Lena calmly instructed. “Just lie still, try to stay calm.”

“Heart rate still climbing, brain activity is off the charts!” Miner informed as the sedative was administered.

The commander’s eyes glazed over, but the heart rate kept on climbing.

“Stats pushing into the red zone, it’s not working!”

“ _Another_ _dose_ _now_!” even as she barked the order, Lena was already over by the console Miner was on, pushing him frantically out the way to input the medication command herself.

Immediately the high pitched wailing of the various machines began to die down, and Lena let a sigh of relief out. She strode back over to her patient’s side, and cupped Kara’s face; watching as the blonde’s dilated pupils began to relax and widen as the drugs took their effect.

“Heart rate is dropping; stats are falling back into normal range. We nearly lost her.”

“She’s stronger than she looks,” Lena mused as she watched the commander fall back into unconsciousness.

Lena reached her gloved hand out and tucked a stray piece of blonde hair off of Supergirl’s now peaceful face.

“Isn’t that why we’re bringing her back, cause she’s stronger than she looks?” Miner snorted.

Lena felt her anger towards the man flare up. This was no time for jokes, they’d been seconds away from losing Commander Danvers, and they had no idea why. It was probably Miner’s tinkering with the console that caused all this. Irritated she lashed out.

“Run your numbers _again_ , this shouldn’t have happened. I want to know what made her wake up like that, and we need to stop it from ever happening again!”

“Yes ma’am,” Miner replied, turning away from the operative with a scowl on his face.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support so far! Hope you are enjoying it so far! I've twisted a few bits of the Mass Effect plot to suit the Supergirl characters slightly.


	3. A Rude Awakening

“…physical reconstruction of the subject is complete, but we still need to evaluate all of her mental and neurological functions. For this reason we are keeping her sedated until the scheduled awakening in a week’s time,” Lena informed.

She was sat in her office on video com link to The Illusive Woman, updating the woman on their progress. A single cup of black coffee was perched on the desk next to a bunch of datapads from which Lena was reading off. The blue hologram of Lillian Luthor smiled gleefully as Lena finished off her report. The incident in the laboratory with Miner over a month ago had luckily only been a small blip and not hindered their progress. Everything was on track for the full revival of the commander; but Lena was still wary of what was going to happen when the subject awoke.

_**“Excellent, you have outdone yourself Lena,”**_ Lillian praised, taking the young operative by surprise.

“T-Thank you ma’am,” Lena thanked her, stuttering at the unusual show of praise her mother was giving her. “If I may, can I take this moment to ask whether you’ve reconsidered my proposal?”

_**“The control chip?”**_ Lillian’s face fell into a frown. _**“Lena we’ve been through this before, we need Commander Danvers to be the exact the same person as who she was before the explosion.”**_

“I understand but with all due respect, what happens if she wakes up and refuses to work with us? We need a failsafe, something that ensures she’ll be under Cadmus’ control. That chip would keep her in line-”

_**“It may well keep her in line,”**_  her superior interrupted. _**“But it could also affect her personality or alter her character. We can’t have anything that might limit Supergirl’s potential in any way…understood?”**_

“Understood,” Lena relented.

**_“Good, see to it that everything goes smoothly next week. We’ll need Danvers at her best; we’ve just had reports coming through of another colony being hit.”_ **

“Another one? That’s the second one this week! Where?” Lena asked in disbelief.

The mysterious disappearance of human colonies was nothing new. What had started as hits on Alliance and human merchant ships and turned into something far sinister in the past few years since the Normandy attack. Now whole human settlements had their occupants mysteriously vanish, with no traces of an attack. The Illusive Woman had suspected it was Reaper work, but Cadmus or the Alliance had yet to prove who was at fault.

_**“Freedom’s Progress. Similar to the others, it’s an isolated human settlement in the Terminus system. If my guess is correct, there’ll be another abduction to investigate when the commander wakes up and she won’t refuse to work with us when she hears about it.”** _

“I just hope your risk pays off.”

_**“Have faith Lena. Keep me informed,”**_ Lillian commanded, taking a drag of her cigarette.

The puffs of the holographic smoke faded out as the woman ended the call, leaving Lena alone in her office once more. She let out a deep sigh before taking a long gulp of her coffee, grimacing when she noticed it had gone cold. The Illusive Woman really was taking an incredible gamble with Kara, and if it all went tits up next week, Lena would have to deal with the fallout of an angry commander and trillions of credits down the drain. She was half tempted to defy her mother’s command and install the chip anyway, Lillian would be none the wiser and Lena was sure that the chip would come in handy when Kara would no doubt disobey them.

She was still sat, pondering this thought and running mental scenarios as to how it would play out should she install the control chip when it all went to hell. Her office shook as a series of loud blasts exploded nearby. The stations fire systems kicked in and Lena found herself getting doused with water even though there were no flames in the room. She scrambled over to the nearby security feeds and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the scenes before her.

Fires were raging round various laboratories and living quarters, people were running around in panic, and it looked like someone had hacked the security robots to attack every single Cadmus operative in sight. Lena winced as some poor man, not much older than twenty, was blown into tiny pieces by the exploding rocket missile of a heavy armoured mech. He’d stood no chance.

The alarms had starting ringing out, and Lena barked into the speaker system for the evacuation process to begin. She could see Jack and the security teams were getting pinned down in the B Wing, struggling to get past to help the civilian scientists that had no military training and were being slaughtered every second. Things got even worse when Lena spotted what must have been at least six mechs, armed to the teeth and heading in what looked like the direction of the infirmary wing.

The same wing where a unconscious and vulnerable Commander Danvers was being kept. Lena’s stomach dropped and her heart began racing in fear. If those mechs got in, there’d be nothing or no-one there to save the commander in time.

This was not good.

Praying for the best, Lena did the only thing she could do from her office. She grabbed the _M-3 Predator_ from her locker, armed it, and locked the doors. She hoped it would give her enough time before she could get to the evac shuttles herself. Pulling up her omni-tool she rapidly punched in the command sequence for the awakening process.

 

* * *

 

 

**_“Commander Danvers.”_ **

Kara groaned. She’d been having the strangest dreams involving white rooms, exploding starships and the voice of some dark haired, green eyed angel from heaven telling her to relax. Something wailed in her ear, snapping her out of these dreams.

As she regained consciousness she realized it was the all too familiar sound of an alarm klaxon. Her body felt heavy and light smeared and blurred as Kara carefully opened her eyes. Confusion, disorientation and pain overwhelmed her senses as she tried to focus on what was before her.

**_“Commander, can you hear me?”_ **

There was that voice again, the one from the angel in her dreams with a slight hint of an Irish twang. Where on earth was it coming from? Was she still dreaming?

**_“Get out of that bloody bed now Danvers! This facility is under attack!”_ **

The sharp, authoritative voice snapped Kara out of her confusing daze, reminding her far too much of her old Alliance boot camp sergeant.

She ungracefully sat up and took in her surroundings before she was rocked off the bed by the whole room rattling from a thunderous boom a few doors down. Kara collapsed on the floor and yelped; every nerve ending screamed out in pain. Her entire body felt heavy and the muscles in her arms and legs ached as she sluggishly pulled herself up to her feet.

The blonde looked around the room and scrubbed at her tired eyes, trying to clear them. Judging by the various medical machines around the room and strong stench of medi-gel in the air, it was clear she was in some infirmary of some sort. Looking down to see she was wearing a standard issued medical gown all but confirmed it. Something had happened but Kara’s memory was still foggy, and she just couldn’t remember what it was.

There were tiny cracks all over her skin, glimmering red underneath, reminding Kara of the cheesy old Terminator vids from the 1980’s. She pressed down lightly on one and flinched; it was sore like a bruise.

**_“Your scars aren’t healed but I need you to get moving….Oh, shit…I’m under attack, but I’ll try direct you best I can.”_** the woman spoke again over the sound of gunfire. **_“There’s a pistol and thermal clip in locker on the other side of the room, hurry!”_**

“O-Okay, roger that,” Kara croaked, throat dry and horse.

Kara shuffled over to the medical locker and sure enough nestled between a pair of old gym sneakers, various medi-gel canisters and a bottle of Merlot wine, was the pistol and round. She grabbed them both, and quickly loaded the weapon just as the mystery woman barked at her to take cover over. The blonde ducked behind a piece of machinery just in time, soon after another explosion blew off the laboratory door.

Using this as her chance to escape, Kara bolted for the exit; straining her sore muscles. Wherever she was, it was in the midst of an attack, the woman over the intercom was correct. As to who was attacking, remained to be seen and unfortunately for Kara, she had no armour or shields at her disposal to protect her. Just the one pistol.

She’d stepped into the corridor that filled with smoke illuminated red by the whirling alarm above her head. It was deserted, so Kara made her way along carefully, not really knowing where she was going or what to expect.

**_“Someone’s hacking security trying to kill you, there are mechs closing in on your position. Be careful!”_ **

Someone had hacked the security mechs? Well that made sense as to why this entire facility seemed to be falling apart, the standard humanoid type models were tricky little things to take out. She ducked into cover again just as the robots came round the corner of the corridor. Kara scolded herself that she’d never taken Maggie up on her offer of learning advancing hacking techniques; he could have reversed the hack in her favour.

The mechs beeped as they spotted Kara, raising up their weapons and firing at her intermittently. The commander had to time this perfectly, without her shields or armour she was exposed. Not to mention she was still incredibly weak from whatever accident she’d been in.

She waited for the pause in their fire to duck out from her cover and fire two rounds into the mech’s heads, killing them in a flash of sparks.They both crumpled to the floor soon after and Kara ran up and picked up their spare thermal clips as continued on her way.

_**“Nice work Danvers, the coast is clear.”** _

She was panting heavily so she paused a second to catch her breath. However long she’d been out it was enough to let her muscles atrophy so much that the walk down the corridor felt like a marathon. Was it weeks? Months? Why couldn’t she remember? She needed to think!

Kara concentrated hard. Leaving Krypton with Clark, meeting the Danvers, joining the Alliance, stopping Lex Luthor and saving the Citadel…was she hurt in the attack? No, no…she could remember all the PR bullshit the council put her through after and then Clark’s ceremony as he was appointed councillor.

Okay, so what else? Oh! Geth.

They, The Council, sent her to clear out the last of the Geth and see why human ships were going missing. She’d been ranting to Alex about it over some hot chocolate when Winn interrupted them over the intercom.

_Winn!_

Suddenly everything came flooding back to Kara. A horrific attack on the Normandy, arguing with Alex to get to the evac pods, shouting at the stubborn pilot to abandon ship, throwing him in the last pod and then…what happened after? Did everyone else escape, and Alex! What happened to her sister?

**_“Keep moving, we need to get you to the shuttles.”_ **

Mystery woman was obviously in a rush, and not sympathetic to the blonde’s current state of confusion but she was right. Kara needed to push on.  
  
Navigating her way round the same white looking rooms, she eventually came to a large canteen of some sort which was littered with bodies lying in their own blood. The mechs had obviously attacked during the middle of dinner, with plates of food still lying half touched on the tables. The victims were all wearing a yellow and grey uniform of some sort, which was definitely not Alliance issue. The symbol patched on the arm looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.

**_“Kara watch out!”_ **

“Huh? Oww…!”

A surprise lone bullet fired it’s way across the room and grazed Kara’s shoulder. She hissed in pain, before she jumped behind an overturned table and took up her position. The mechs had caught her off guard, but luckily it was just a flesh wound and nothing a slab of medi-gel couldn’t cure. A couple of minutes passed and eventually she managed to take them out.

**_“More reinforcements are incoming Commander, I’ll try distract them best I can, but keep moving!”_ **

Kara nodded and gave the air a thumbs up to the woman that was watching her through the security feeds. She continued along, taking out more mechs and encountering more bodies. The blonde eventually came to what looked like some research lab, with a terminal in the centre that was left on and unlocked.

**_“You’re ddddoing…Danvers. Head to the…mmmmeet you…” the woman’s voice crackled with static. “Danverssss? rrrrread me? I’ve got…cccclosing in…positionnn…”_ **

“Hey lady? You there?” Kara called out as she strode over to the terminal.

Nothing came back. Well that wasn’t good, but she couldn’t let it distract her. She’d just have to carry on without the mystery woman’s help. The commander took the chance without the woman’s watchful eye to snoop around the files on the unlocked terminal before her. It appeared to belong to someone called Chet Miner, who Kara guessed worked in the facility as a medical officer. He had recorded a bunch of audio files that dated back as far as September 2183. She clicked on one at random and the sound played out.

_‘Log update. The cost of this project is astronomical, over four billion credits so far, but nobody seems to care that we’ve gone over budget. I don’t know where the boss gets all her money…maybe it’s better not to know. I just wish he’d kick a little more in my direction once in a while.’_

Whoever Chet Miner was, he only seemed to care about money and getting his share. Who were these people that worked here? They didn’t sound like the decent type if the lamenting medical officer was anything to go on. Curious, Kara played another.

_‘Log update. I can’t figure Lena out. As project director she should be ecstatic at all the progress we’ve made, and the fact she’s finally getting a good fuck from that security guy Spheer. But no, she’s still the same old ice queen…maybe she’s worried Danvers might become the new favorite. Or maybe she’s just a pure cold-hearted crazy bitch like her brother.’_

Kara scoffed, clearly this man was nothing but bitter. She left the terminal no further forward in finding out where she was, what had happened or about the status of her crew; all she knew was that this facility had spent a fortune on whatever project they were working on and that Chet Miner had some vendetta against his boss Lena.

The commander left the research room and silently moved further down the corridor, where she nearly emptied the contents of her stomach as she watched a huge heavy armoured mech pulverise some poor soul against a partition window to her right, leaving a bloody splatter on the glass. Unfortunately, there was no way to get to the mech, which ignored, or didn’t register Kara, and clunked away out of sight. The commander continued on.

The next room she entered was in the midst of an ongoing battle. A tall bearded Asian man was pinned down by a handful of the security mechs in the corner nearest to Kara. A couple of the man’s colleagues laid dead on the floor nearby. They were all dressed in the same yellowing grey colours as the other bodies Kara had come across, but these men didn’t look like scientists or doctors, but rather like marines. The lone survivor must be the only security guard left in this hell hole.

Kara sprinted across the gunfire to his position, and skidded into cover next to the man; grimacing at the burning sensation it left on her bare legs. She was, after all, still running around in a medical gown. The security officer sat gaping at her like she was a famous vid star, before snapping out of his trance.

“Commander Danvers!? What the hell…?” He spluttered out in a British accent.

Kara ignored him and took a few shots at the mechs, taking one out in the process before ducking back into cover and facing the man.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’re still a work in progress?” He asked the blonde.

“Work in progress? What do you mean?” Kara retorted, still out of whack with everything that was happening.

“Oh yeah sorry,” the man fumbled. “I forgot this is all new to you right now. I’m Jack Spheer, I’ve been stationed here for-”

Jack was cut off by the sound of more security mechs entering the room and firing upon them.

**“HOSTILES DETECTED.”**

“Damn it!” Jack cursed as one of the mech’s shots narrowly missed the top of his head.

He retaliated by landing a headshot on one of the robots. Oh so this was the same Jack that Chet Miner had described in his log, the one who Lena had been intimate with.

“Things must be bad if Lena’s got you running around. I’ll fill you in, but we better get you to a shuttle first.”   
  
“I know this isn’t the best time,” Kara began, fully aware of the gunfire continuing to rain down on them. “But I’m sick of stumbling round this station when I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Fair enough, I’ll give you the quick version; you and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were killed, dead as dead can be when they brought you here. Our scientists were left in charge of putting you back together at this facility…welcome back to your life Commander.”

“Dead…that's…I’m having some trouble wrapping my mind round this,” Kara admitted in disbelief, sinking down against the wall.

“Yeah I bet,” Jack snorted. “The Alliance officially declared you killed in action, the whole galaxy thinks you’re dead.If we don’t get you to those shuttles, they’ll be right.”

“What about my crew, did they make it out okay?”

  
“Tell you what, you help me finish off these mechs and I’ll sit and play Twenty Questions with you all day,” Jack glanced down, noticing how underdressed the commander was and tried not to blush. “E-Erm I know you’re not exactly _combat ready_ right now, but I’m a biotic like you. If you can put up a barrier, I’ll hit them with the good stuff, yeah?”

“Deal,” Kara grinned, smiling for the first time since she’d woken up.

The two of them together finished off the mechs in no time at all, leaving a heap of metal junk that was still sparking in their wake. Jack holstered his pistol and turned to face the blonde.

“Okay, I promised to answer your questions. Shoot.”

“My crew. What happened?”

“Most of them got out fine, a few in the lower decks didn’t make it. Your Navigational Officer, Vaquez, died in the initial attack. But everyone else, including your sister and mother left unscathed.”

“Thank Rao,” Kara sighed in relief, holding a hand up to her heart. “So what’s with this attack, do you know who’s behind it?’

“Nope, I was just on my way back to my quarters to get some shut eye and then bam!” The man waved his arms around dramatically to emphasise his point. “Someone hacked these mechs, apparently. They’ve been wiping out everyone they come across, trying to get to you.”

Kara’s jaw tightened, her eyes shifting ever so slightly. All this death and destruction…just because someone wanted her dead. Probably Lex Luthor’s fanatic terrorist group at it again; what were they called though? Hmm, her memory was still too fuzzy.

“Okay…when I first woke up, there was this Irish woman talking to me over the radio. We lost contact just before I ran into you, who is she?”

“Lena Luth…I m-mean Lena, is the station’s ranking officer. She also led the Lazarus team, the ones responsible for bringing you back to life, no matter what.”

The commander narrowed her eyes at Jack’s slip up. It sounded like he was holding back on some important information on Lena, but she chose to ignore it for now. Jack continued, and Kara didn’t miss the concern in his voice.

“Should have guessed she’d try to save you, she’s not about to give up on you now. You said you lost contact…could you tell what was happening?”

“Not really no, she mentioned she was under attack and there was static on the comm but then nothing, sorry.”

The security guard’s brown eyes darkened slightly, before he shrugged it off.

“She knows how to take care of herself…but I hope she’s okay. Anyway, lets get to the shuttle bay, this place is swarming with mechs but working together we’ll make it.”

Jack turned away from the commander and started heading towards the door that the mechs had entered through before. He was stopped and pulled back when Kara grabbed his wrist hard. The man blinked like a deer in headlights as he found himself face to face with her pistol.

“I’m trusting you for now Jack,” Kara warmed firmly. “Don’t give me a reason not to.”

“Of c-course Commander,” he squeaked.

“Alright then,” Kara chirped, releasing Jack’s wrist and lowering the gun. “Lead the way!”


	4. We Are Cadmus

Always trust your gut.

That’s what her father had told her back when she’d been growing up on Krypton, and it was a motto Kara had stuck to ever since. Safe to say it had got her out of some sticky situations in life, like knowing not to trust Alex’s high school boyfriend even before they found out he was cheating.  Instinct had helped Kara survive early on in her military career when the rest of her squad had been killed in a thresher maw attack on Akuze, and also when she’d taken a gamble in talking Lex Luthor out of his indoctrinated state.

 Which is why Kara knew something was off about this Chet Miner guy. She’d only just finished threatening Jack when the distressed medical officer’s voice had come through on the radio.

**_Check, check. Anyone still on this frequency? Hello? Anyone alive out there?”_ **

Jack’s eyes widened. He pulled up his omni-tool and accepted the connection.

“Miner? Is that you?” Jack called out.

**_“Operative Spheer! Thank god, I thought I was the only one left!”_ **

“Nope, I’m here with Commander Danvers. Just took out a wave of mechs over in B Wing.”

" ** _Danvers? She’s awake…and alive? How…never mind. You have to help me! I’ve been shot!”_**

“Where are you? We’ll come get you and head to the shuttles.”

**_“Server room C_ ** **_, hurry!”_ **

“Roger that Chet, stay on this frequency,” Spheer instructed to the panicked man before hanging up the call.

Jack looked back at Kara and jerked his chin toward the far door.

“That way, we’ll be able to cut across the maintenance wing to reach Miner.”

“I found a few audio logs of his,” Kara began. “Sounded like he’s not a fan of Lena that much. He was grumbling about her being a bitch and something about not getting paid enough?”

Jack let out a low belly laugh as he led them over to the door.

“Yeah, that sounds like him. He’s the chief medical technician, answers directly to Lena. She doesn’t like him that much either; many of us don’t, _he’s a dick_.”

Kara chuckled, before wincing as a splitting headache ran down the length of her skull. She stumbled, which in turn caused rippling muscle spasms over her aching body. Jack gave her a concerned look.

“I’m fine,” she reassured as they reached the maintenance door. “So you’re a marine?”

“I used to be with the Alliance yeah,” Jack said as he worked on opening the door.

“Used to be…?” Kara questioned suspiciously. “Not anymore?”

“Not exactly,” Spheer grunted as he muscled the doors apart and ushered Kara through.

The blonde didn’t have time to question the security officer any more as they walked right into the room that was swarming with mechs. The pair somehow managed to hold them off, using their combined strength and biotics to crush the robots to pieces. By the time they were finished, both were out of breath and exhausted; Kara especially. Now she felt like she’d ran two marathons back to back! To make matters worse, her pistol had been fried when the last mech’s shot hit it from her hand, so now she was without a weapon, save for her biotics.

They escaped the maintenance room and managed to make it to the server room where Miner was sat, clutching his leg in pain. This is where Kara’s gut started screaming out that something wasn’t quite right.

Miner had claimed the mechs had shot him, yet there wasn’t a single mech dead or alive in the room. That and if Kara remembered rightly, mechs didn’t aim for the arms or legs. They were programmed to kill, which meant aiming for the head or heart was more likely. Miner was crying out and groveling over what was little more than a minor graze as Kara covered the wound in medi-gel.

“Thanks Danvers,” he drawled as the blonde helped him to his feet. “Never thought you’d save my life. Guess we’re even now huh?”

Kara ignored his attempt at humor and just eyed him apprehensively. Miner looked very uneasy under her gaze.

“I thought I could shut down the security mechs, but whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible!” he rambled.

Jack, to his credit, looked like he wasn’t buying the man’s story either.

“We didn’t ask what you were doing Chet,” he started. “Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the bio-wing.”

“Weren’t you listening? I came here to try fix this!” Miner snarled at Jack’s skeptical tone, gesturing wildly to his leg that was slathered in medi-gel. “I was shot! How do you explain that?”

“Whoa…easy buddy, okay?” Kara held up her hands, trying to soothe the agitated man even though he was beginning to annoy her. “Let’s all just stay calm and focus on getting out of here.”

“Shuttles aren’t too far,” Jack piped up, fiddling with his omni-tool. “At least the comms are working again. We need to try and get a hold of Lena-”

“Forget about Lena,” Miner huffed. “The mechs were all over her sector, there’s _no way_ she survived.”

“A bunch of mechs wouldn’t stop her,” Jack snorted. “She’s alive.”

“Then where is she? Why haven’t we heard from her now the comms are back on?” the injured man sneered. “There are only two possible explanations: she’s either dead…or she’s a traitor!”

“Enough!” Kara grumped, clutching her forehead in pain as she felt the tell tale signs of migraine coming on. “Right now I don’t really care who’s a traitor or not, and I don’t know who any of you people are, so let’s just focus on getting off this station before we start pointing fingers!”

She shuffled over to Miner, dropping the useless weapon in her head and pulled the medic’s pistol from his belt. She gave him a sarcastically sweet smile as she checked the safety before popping in a loaded clip.

“You won’t be needing this now, will you Doc?”

Miner looked pale, sweat shining on his forehead. There was no chance in hell that he wasn’t guilty of at least _something_ , so Kara didn’t dare risk letting the man have a sidearm. He could be the one that was trying to kill her after all.

“But what about the mechs…?” he protested.

“Oh don’t worry,” Kara cooed. “I’ll protect you from the _big bad mechs_.”

“But you’re running around in a medical gown without any armor…” Miner trailed off as Kara gave him a vicious glare.

“Ooookay,” Jack interrupted, sensing the tension between the two. “This is getting tense. Kara if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?”

“Well it’d be a start.”

“ _What are_ _you doing?_ _!_ ” Miner seethed. “You can’t tell her that!”

“Um, yes he can!” the blonde shot back.

“I’m not going to lie to her; we won’t get anywhere if she’s expecting a bullet in the back,” Jack retorted.

Kara could tell he’d been a marine. He knew how important trust and disclosure were, especially to those who you were going to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with.

“If you want to piss off the boss, it’s your ass Jack. She’s not gonna like this,” Miner lamented, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Jack ignored his protests and continued.

“The Lazarus Project, the program that rebuilt you…it’s funded and controlled by Cadmus.”

For a brief moment, Kara couldn’t place the name. It rang familiar, but any meaning was lost in the fog of her scrambled memory. Suddenly her eyes went dark with rage and she snapped her pistol up and aimed it at Jack’s face. Miner squealed in terror and jumped behind the former marine who remained stoic in his stance. To be fair to him, Jack barely flinched and simply held Kara’s gaze with his own before nodding.

“Yeah, _that_ Cadmus,” he affirmed.

“You trapped my squad in a nest full of thresher maws on Akuze!” Kara snarled with fury. “Six good men and women, killed…for what? _Research_? You told me you were Alliance…why lie?”

“I didn’t lie to you commander, _I was_ in the Alliance until I joined Cadmus,” Jack explained, still unwavering even with Kara’s gun pointed at him. “And I’ll admit, Cadmus has done some questionable things in the past but they were the ones who spent a fortune bringing you back.”

“That doesn’t excuse the fact that you’re a terrorist organization that Lex Luthor helped to create!” the blonde continued her rant, not feeling her anger quell any time soon.

“I know, I know…look I’d be suspicious too, but right now we have to work together. I thought you deserved to know what’s what. Once we’re off this station, I’ll take you to The Illusive Woman and she’ll explain everything. I promise.”

Kara didn’t trust Cadmus one bit, but her gut was telling her that Jack was telling the truth. He was no saint, but clearly not a liar. She traced the man’s eyes of guilt one last time before lowering her weapon. Miner let out an audible sigh from behind Jack.

“Okay,” the blonde huffed. “Let’s move…I want answers.”

 

* * *

 

 

“C’mon through here!” Miner yelled as he ran out from his cover across to the shuttle bay door.

Kara and Jack had just finished clearing the hangar from a horde of heavy-duty mechs. Miner had been stuck cowering behind a large container and the two biotics wiped the area clean of the pesky robots. They’d just about caught up to the medic at the doors as he began typing away furiously on the terminal to unlock them.

A few seconds passed until metal gate slid upwards. Miner was too busy facing Kara and Jack to not immediately notice the person stood on the other side.

“We’re almost at the-” he started before he turned his head round and gasped in shock. “Luthor! But you were…?”

The lashes over green eyes barely fluttered as the tall raven haired woman lifted her gun, pulled the trigger and erased the startled medic as if she were swatting away a fly. Blood spluttered out of Miner’s artery as the bullet cut right through his neck.

“Dead?” Lena finished for the man, as his body crumpled to the ground.

Kara instinctively drew her own weapon and pointed it at the tall brunette, who was…damn it, _really pretty_ ; like one of those models you’d see in the lingerie vids. The blonde internally scolded herself and her hormones for acting up at such an inappropriate time. Jack however, was more vocal about what the woman had done.

“What the hell are you doing Lena?” he snapped, leaning down to check if Miner had a pulse.

“My job, Miner betrayed us all,” she replied, her voice that same unmistakable Irish that had spoken in brief, broken snatches over the comm to Kara when she woke up. “He reprogrammed the mechs to take Danvers out.”

If the commander holding a loaded pistol to her face bothered her, Lena didn’t show it. Instead, her posture relaxed as she held her hand on one hip and took in the sight of Kara barefoot, blonde hair loose and wild and still clad in a medical gown. The operative smirked, which in turn made Kara more irritated and flustered than before. This woman may be pretty, but Miner had said she was a _Luthor_.

“Even if you’re sure,” Kara said. “Did he deserve that welcome?”

“I see you didn’t have time to get dressed Commander,” Lena teased, before her tone went cold. “But yes he did; he sabotaged the security system, killed my staff and he would have killed us too.”

“You should have taken him alive, see what he knew.”

“Too risky, I’ve put too much time and effort bringing you back to life only to have you killed now.”

“You really think Miner was capable of that?” Jack chipped in; standing again after finding the medic was dead.

“Not anymore,” Lena replied, as she glared at said the Miner’s cold lifeless body before them.

Kara still didn’t know if she could trust the two Cadmus operatives. Her gut was screaming at her not to believe them, but logic prevailed. She needed to get off this station, and these two had the only ride available. Grunting, she reluctantly lowered her gun from the other woman’s…uh, beautiful face. Lena was still completely calm.

“Okay, what happens now?” Kara asked cautiously.

“We get on the shuttle and leave, my boss wants to speak with you.”

“You mean The Illusive Woman?” Kara replied snarkily. “I know you work for Cadmus.”

With that, Lena turned her gaze from the commander’s blue eyes and glared at Jack. The other operative merely shrugged.

“Ahh Jack, I should have known your conscience would get the better of you,” Lena said rolling her eyes.

“Lying to the Commander isn’t going to get her to join our cause,” he retorted, sending a respectful nod in Kara’s direction.

Lena groaned at her XO and ran a gloved hand through her dark tresses before turning back and facing Kara.

“I’ll answer anything you’d like to know onboard the shuttle Commander, okay?”

“Wait what about the other people-”

“Good, let’s go.” And without giving Kara a chance to protest any further, Lena turned sharply on her heel and strolled to a nearby shuttle.

Jack followed closely behind on her tail.

Lena Luthor was the mysterious woman and she didn’t seem to wait around for anyone. Kara had so many questions swirling in her head; like why did Cadmus want her alive so badly? How did one of Lex’s relatives become the person responsible for fixing her back together? Why had a seemingly good man like Jack joined a terrorist organization? And where the hell were Alex and the rest of her crew? Her gut was screaming out at her again that going with the Cadmus operatives was bad news, but she really had no other choice unless she didn’t want to find out the answers to her questions.

Reluctantly, she shuffled over to the transport to join Jack and Lena, wincing as she finally sat down in the passenger seat. Her entire body was on fire; it was beginning to feel like she really had died with how sore she felt.

The shuttle took off instantly, and no sooner had they left, did Lena input the commands for a self destruct sequence of the entire station, much to Kara’s horror.

“There are people still on that station!” she cried out.

“No there aren’t, we are the only ones who made it out. The security mechs are very thorough. Besides, we need to destroy any record of your recovery and the most efficient way to do that is through the self destruct.”

As if on cue, the station behind them exploded in a bright blinding light, which faded as quickly as it arrived. The resulting shockwave rattled the shuttle as it continued flying away, before Jack hit the FTL drive that send them to hyperspeed. Confident that the shuttle was on course, the operative left it on autopilot before joining Kara and Lena in the back.

Sitting across from the two Cadmus agents, Kara felt nauseous from the migraine that had fully kicked in. The adrenaline of battle had pushed her through it, but now the hormone had disappeared, the pain had began to settle in. Just to be extra cautious, Kara held her pistol on her bare knee in case this Lena woman tried anything funny. Jack she sort of trusted, Luthor not so much. But then again, the stunning vixen had hardly gone through all this to have her killed; although she wasn’t exactly sure what _all this_ was.

The blonde looked up and found Lena staring at her curiously. Those emerald green eyes were running up and down her body, inspecting her. Kara simply raised an eyebrow in question as the woman’s gaze met hers.

“Jack is right,” Lena admitted. “At this point full disclosure is the best course of action. And I need to run some tests to evaluate the condition of your memories and neurological state.”

“More tests?” Jack asked, with a hint of disbelief in his voice. “C’mon Lena, Kara took down those mechs without any trouble, and half dressed! That has to be good enough?”

Self consciously the commander tugged the hem of the medical gown down further and blushed. She _really_ needed to find some more clothes. Rolling her eyes, Lena simply scoffed.

“Really Commander? I’ve spent the past two years putting you back together, there’s nothing there I haven’t already seen.”

“Wait… _two years_?” Kara gasped, turning pale. “I’ve been dead for two years?!”

“No, you were dead for _nine_ months,” Lena corrected casually, as if this wasn’t a huge revelation. “The chemical, electrical and biological recovery of your primitive brain stem to the point it could independently control your body’s systems was finished then. You’ve been in a medically induced coma for the past fifteen months as your organs and circulatory systems were fully repaired. The past two months have been dedicated to growing your epidermal tissue; a process that was still a week from completion, hence the glowing scars. But don’t worry, they’ll fade in time.”

“T-There’s…no way that can all be true,” Kara rasped, completely in shock as she held her head in her hands. “How is that even possible?!”

Jack gave her a pitiful glance as he leaned forward and rubbed his hands idly together nervously. Lena continued, not appearing to share in her XO’s discomfort.

“I know it’s hard to hear,” he started softly. “But you did die Kara. You fell with the rest of your wreckage of your ship into the gravity pull of a nearby planet and-”

“You were burned beyond all recognition and in several pieces when your body was relocated,” Lena finished bluntly.

“ _Christ Lena!_ ” Jack chided. “You could be gentler about it!”

“She’s not a child,” Lena snapped back.

Kara sat back up and wiped her shaking, frustrated hands over her face. This was just unreal, she’d actually _died_. She’d been gone for two whole years and then some terrorist organization had brought her back to life. She couldn’t begin to know how to process it all.

“Why?” Kara asked exasperated. “If I did die, why throw so many resources into bringing me back? I’m just one marine!”

“You’re more than just a marine Kara. You’re a hero, an icon…you’re bloody _Super_ _girl!_ ” Jack encouraged her, trying to lift the blonde’s spirit. “What you did against Lena’s brother, against Sovereign…you’re a symbol, not just to humanity but to the galaxy!”

“No solider or human has ever accomplished what you have,” Lena joined in. “The Reaper threat isn’t over and you’re the galaxy’s best hope of stopping them.”

“Yeah, right,” Kara jeered. “And you, _being Lex Luthor’s sister_ , have no alternate agenda in all this?”

“Like it or not Commander, you’re here now because of me,” the operative retorted, getting somewhat annoyed by Kara’s tone. “And I’m not asking you to trust me, or Cadmus. Right now we’re heading to speak to The Illusive Woman, and all I want is for you to listen to her. After that you can do what you want, we won’t stop you.”

“Okay, fine,” Kara huffed, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat.

“We’re nearing the platform station,” Jack announced as he returned to the cockpit, leaving the two women alone.

“Where’s Alex?” Kara piped up after a few minutes of silence had passed between them. “ _Action Man_ over there said she’d made it off the Normandy along with the others; where is she now?”

“I’m afraid your sister’s whereabouts are unknown to me Commander,” Lena replied. “But The Illusive Woman may know more. I will have to run some more tests before you see her…”

 Lena’s voice faded to background noise as Kara sat and looked out the shuttle window in deep thought. Alex, her crew, Eliza, The Council and Alliance…they all thought she was dead. And Clark! She couldn’t even begin to comprehend how Clark felt; thinking he was now the last Kryptonian in the galaxy. Two whole years…she was twenty-eight when she’d defeated Lex and the Reapers. Now she was into her thirties…or was she? How does age work when you’re technically dead for so long? It was all just mind boggling, like a horrible nightmare.

 A nightmare that wouldn’t end.


	5. Freedom's Progress

Kara stared at the holographic image of the Illusive Woman.

She’d arrived on the Cadmus station ten minutes ago, and now found herself face to face with the seated woman, who was immaculately well dressed and also just happened to be none other than _Lillian Luthor_. Lena and Jack had informed her she was going to meet their leader, but Kara had presumed it was going to be in the flesh.

**_“A necessary precaution on my part Commander; not unusual for people who know what you and I know,”_** Lillian drawled, inhaling her cigarette before unleashing a steady stream of smoke.

The image flickered before Kara as she crossed her arms to address the woman.

“You may be the reason I’m alive, but that doesn’t mean I trust you.”

She narrowed her eyes at the leader. From the moment the blue hologram booted up, Kara knew what type of character Lillian Luthor was; not the trustworthy kind.

**_“You need to put your personal feelings aside. Humanity is up against the greatest threat of our brief existence,”_** she said, pointing the cancer stick at the commander.

“The Reapers,” Kara realized.

**_“Good to see your memory is still intact; I see my daughter has done a fine job rebuilding you. How are you feeling?”_** Lillian asked, attempting to be friendly. 

“You need to earn the right to ask me those kinds of questions,” The blonde growled.

The hairs were standing up on the back of her neck, alerting Kara not to trust Lillian one bit. The older woman said she wanted to stop the Reapers...but at what cost? Her son had said a similar thing a few years ago...and then got himself indoctrinated and brought upon a mini invasion! Who was to say Lillian wasn’t about to follow in his footsteps?

**_“Cadmus isn’t as evil as you’d believe,”_** Lillian replied, tapping the cigarette on the edge of her ashtray. **_“You and I are on the same side Danvers; we just use different methods to complete our goals.”_**    

Kara clenched her fists, recalling the horrors she’d experienced on Akuze and the various Cadmus facilities they’d encountered when hunting Lex. Those were the different methods Lillian was talking about and Kara didn’t like them one bit. But there was no point accusing the Illusive Woman now, she knew she was wrong, so Kara decided to get straight to the point.

“Cut to the chase _Lillian_ ,” she snapped. “What are the Reapers doing that made you decide to bring me back from the dead?” 

**_“We’re at war. Nobody wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. While you’ve been sleeping, entire human colonies have been disappearing,”_** Lillian explained as she rose from her chair and paced. **_“We believe it’s someone working for The Reapers – just as Lex and the Geth aided Sovereign.”_**

“Yeah, I bet you weren’t too happy when your darling son nearly caused the complete annihilation of all civilization in the galaxy,” Kara scoffed.

**_“What happened to Lex was...unfortunate. But believe me Commander I’m taking this Reaper threat very seriously. Colonies are vanishing, most likely being killed, and we both know it won’t stop there.”_ **

Kara’s brain whirled with the information presented to her. Innocent lives were being taken, and it must be bad if a terrorist organization like Cadmus were stepping in to help. She needed to find a way to get the Alliance involved, and heck even the Council. The more people who were aware, the more preparation could be done.

“If this is a threat against humanity, then we need to mobilize the Alliance,” Kara stressed but was rewarded only with a shake of the other woman’s head as she took another drag on the cigarette.

**_“They suffered substantial loses fighting Sovereign. They’re rebuilding, still stretched too thin to waste resources verifying the Reaper threat. And they’ve joined the Council in blaming the abductions on mercs and pirates...easier and more convenient.”_ **

Kara was the one to shake her head next; surely the Alliance couldn’t be ignoring this, could they? Was The Illusive Woman telling the truth? She turned her blue eyes to observe the woman, to see if she was lying. She didn’t appear to be.

“If what you say is true,” Kara couldn’t believe she was deciding this. “If the Reapers _are_ behind these missing colonies...then I’d consider helping you.”

The blonde knew she was totally going to regret this all later. Lillian gave her a wicked satisfied smile.

**_“I would be disappointed if you accepted any of this without seeing it for yourself._** **_I have a shuttle ready to take you to Freedom’s Progress, the latest colony to be hit. Lena and Jack will brief, and accompany you.”_**

“Is this a volunteer job or am I being volunteered?” Kara sneered; she was not happy at the older woman trying to assert control over her.

**_“You always have a choice Kara,”_** Lillian sighed. **_“If you don’t find the evidence we’re both looking for we can part ways.”_**

All that money invested on the off chance Kara would just find something? No, she knew better than that. From her dealings with shady characters in the past she knew everything came with a price.

**_“But first,”_** The Illusive Woman interrupted her thoughts. **_“Go to Freedom’s Progress and find any clues you can. Who’s abducting the colonists? Do they have connection to the Reapers? I brought you back; it’s up to you to do the rest.”_**

Well Lillian was definitely passing the bucket that’s for sure.

“Okay fine, I’ll do it,” Kara relented and gave the woman a curt nod.

The image of Lillian flickered once again and cut off almost immediately after the commander had agreed. Kara let out a large sigh as she took in everything she’d learned. She’d not even been awake half a day and already she had so much on her plate to deal with. And these missing colonies, it didn’t point to good news.

First things first, she needed to find some suitable clothes and armour.

 

* * *

 

 Kara really should have known better than to assume that the _‘ice queen,_ ’ Lena Luthor, would open up to her straight away. She’d returned up the small set of stairs from the holographic room where she’d spoke to Lillian, and been ushered into some kind of waiting room.  The blonde was sat idly, still dressed in her medical gown, waiting on Jack who’d been sent to retrieve her new armour that Cadmus had commissioned especially. Lena was stood next to her, typing furiously away on some terminal and so far had ignored the commander.

As much as Kara wanted to get going to Freedom’s Progress, she was also enjoying the rest. Her body was still on fire from the physical exertion of taking down those security mechs. Trying to relive some of the tension in her muscles, she stretched, but immediately regretted it as a sharp pain shot down her arms.

“Are you feeling any discomfort since you awakened Commander?” Lena asked, breaking the silence.

Her tone was all business. The operative abandoned the terminal and walked to stand in front of Kara, before pulling up her omni-tool to examine her.

“Well I’m p-pretty sore,” Kara admitted, faltering under the woman’s intense gaze.

Why did this woman make her feel so nervous all of a sudden? Especially when she was being so blunt and formal with her! Ugh....damn these hormones!

“Where?” Lena pressed, continuing her scans.

“Everywhere? Feels like I’ve just ran loads of marathons back to back.”

“Understandable, you haven’t used your muscles for over two years,” Lena merely replied, dropping her gaze from inspecting Kara to the readings on her omni-tool.

“Right, so um, Lena?” Kara said awkwardly, rubbing her arm. “Can you tell me more about the Lazarus Project? I’d like to know more from the woman in charge.”

“I wasn’t in charge, The Illusive Woman was,” Lena corrected very quickly. “If I was running the show I’d have done a few things differently.”

“Like what?”

“To start, I’d have implanted you with some kind of control chip, but The Illusive Woman wouldn’t allow it,” the operative revealed somewhat bitterly, leaving Kara taken aback. “She was afraid it might affect your personality, alter your character somehow. She wouldn’t let us do anything that might limit your potential in any way.”

Kara just stared at Lena. She wasn’t quite sure if this woman was joking or not...then again, she was Lex Luthor’s sister; only made sense for her to be as cold and crazy as him. But should Kara really be surprised that the operative was acting so emotionless when the past relationship between their families wasn’t exactly peachy? Guilt washed over her, it wasn’t fair to judge Lena on the actions of her brother and mother...at least not yet.

“Well I’m glad your mother was in charge, I don’t like the idea of waking up to find I have a control chip in my brain. That would be rather freaky...” Kara continued, hoping that if she kept talking it would ease the atmosphere between them.

Lena didn’t reply, instead she continued scanning and making notes on her omni-tool. Seeing that the operative had no further inclination to speak, Kara tried a different tactic to get the woman to open up to her.

“W-Well, um,” Kara stammered causing Lena to glance at her briefly. “I want to say thank you...regardless.”

Lena paused in her work and tilted her head towards Kara, causing the woman’s cheeks to blush and for her to stammer some more.

“I j-just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate what The Lazarus Project did for me,” the blonde thanked, regaining enough composure to give the operative a small smile.

Lena appeared unfazed or gracious by Kara’s remark.

“I just hope it was worth it, a lot of people died on that station,” she lamented in response.

Kara froze as she processed Lena’s words. Her tone was clip and Kara did not like the implications of that statement or her attitude. She was really getting fed up with the indifference.

“So I saw,” Kara returned the frosty tone back. “For someone who spent two years putting me back together, you don’t seem too fond of me.”

“I have the utmost respect for your abilities Commander; it’s your motivations that concern me,” Lena deadpanned, before returning to her terminal.

“Ooookay, moving on then,” Kara changed the subject again, trying one last time to get Lena to open up to her. “Tell me a bit about yourself?”

“Worried about my abilities?” Lena glanced up and raised a single eyebrow. “I can crush a mech with my biotics or shoot its head off from 100 yards, take your pick.”

Kara was glad she was sat down as the piercing gaze the raven haired woman was giving her was turning her legs to jelly. Still, no matter how stunning Lena Luthor was, it didn’t make up for the fact that her aloofness was getting more and more annoying.

“I was trying to get to know you as a _human being_ ,” Kara sulked, crossing her arms.

“I’m not looking for a friend Kara, stay focused on the mission,” Lena replied, her eyes drifting over to the door where Jack had just returned with the armour.

The other operative caught Kara’s eye and grinned, holding up the box with her new clothes and pointed to the small changing room next to him.

“Well, it’s _obvious_ you’re not interested in talking anymore.” Kara grumbled back at Lena, as she unsteadily rose to her feet. 

“We’ve got an assignment,” Lena retorted. “We can talk about it or we can _do it_.”

 

* * *

 

 The mech collapsed, shuddering with a low whine, half of its chest gone. Kara strode over to its corpse, grabbed its mangled face plate and lurched its head to the side. There was a small serial number reading _011100336 Freedom’s Progress_ roughly etched at the back of the machine’s neck.

Since they’d arrived on Freedom’s Progress, they’d found no sign of anyone or anything except security mechs. They’d gotten a third of the way through the colony finding only empty houses and abandoned activities. Tools lay dropped, televisions left on, and meals sat half prepared or half eaten. Doors stood open but valuables inside were left untouched. There was no sign of a struggle, or damage or any combat related activity. Until they came across the mechs, there had been nothing moving except the wind and themselves. It was eery.

“This mech belonged to the colony,” Kara stated, noting the engraving.

“What was it doing shooting at us? It should have recognized us as human!” Jack questioned as he reloaded his assault rifle.

“Someone had to have hacked it,” Lena commented as the commander stood back up straight. “Someone’s still here, hiding. There have never been any reports of survivors at the other colonies.”

“Well let’s find them,” Kara ordered. “Do we have any idea as to where they could be?”

“They’re controlled by a small security prefab on the far end of the main square,” Lena replied, as she checked her omni-tool. “We’ll have to get there to shut them down.”

“Good, I’ll be happy if I never see another mech again!” Kara joked before focusing back on the mission. “Whoever’s hacked them will be in there too, we need to get access.”

“This way, it’s the most direct route,” Jack nodded, pointing to the right. “We’ll have to cut through the bio-lab offices, but I doubt it’ll be locked down...nowhere in this place is.”

The group continued on, crossing a small storage yard before spotting the offices in the distance. As they neared, a FENRIS mech came bounding towards them. They were weird things; almost looking and acting like dogs in the way they moved, but they were also deadly if they got close enough to self-destruct.

Before it had a chance to do any damage, Kara snagged it in a biotic hold and hoisted it into the air. Lena reacted quickly as she aimed and fired, taking out its main processor and power unit in two quick shots. The blonde let it drop back to the ground soon after, and started to move towards the bio-labs.

“Be careful Commander,” Lena warned as she read the readings off her omni-tool. “My scans are picking up a temperature reading from inside; there might be someone in there.”

“Roger that, you go left. Jack, right. Flank and I’ll get the door.”

They crept up the set of steps to the small terrace, moving silently like ghosts. Jack and Lena took up their positions beside the entrance door. As the Cadmus agents readied themselves Kara swept in, her aim instantly focusing on a face plate as the door slid aside.

Well this was a shock; it was a bunch of quarians inside, who’d all straightened in shock as the commander had entered. Kara counted five of them, as they reached for their weapons.

“ _Don’t,_ ” the blonde warned them as Jack and Lena joined her side.

“I’m not taking any chances with you Cadmus soldiers!” a male quarian in the group sneered back, still pointing his gun at Kara.

Suddenly, a sixth quarian came running out, her hands held high in the air as she stood between the two groups.

“Stop! Everyone hold your fire!” a familiar voice rang out.

It was pretty hard to pick out an individual quarian from a group. Gender not so much, but their environmental suits covered up most clues other races used to distinguish one another. Unless said suits were _uniquely_ distinct that was. If a quarian was a close friend, however, it’d be the small mannerisms or body language that’d give it away.

For Kara it was the sound of the quarian’s voice that made her instantly recognize who was under the suit.

“Maggie?” the blonde called out, lowering her weapon.

“L-Little Danvers...?” the quarian responded in disbelief and confusion. “It can’t be...is that really you?”

For Kara, hearing the old nickname and seeing Maggie standing there was the first good thing to happen to her since she’d woken up. Maggie was an anchor and a small bit of reality amongst this hellish nightmare she’d been living. Finally, here was someone she knew and trusted...someone familiar. Someone who was a friend.

“It’s me Maggie,” Kara smiled, before nodding towards the other quarians. “Mind asking your friends to uh...lower their aim?”

“In your dreams _Cadmus_!” the same lead male hissed, with surprising venom, prompting Maggie to slap him on the chest.

“Shut it Prazza! I’m in charge here, lower your weapons.  Commander Danvers isn’t Cadmus.”

Three of the quarians followed Maggie’s orders and lowered their rifles, but Prazza and one other didn’t budge.

“Then why do her two lackeys have Cadmus insignia painted on their armour?”

_“Lackeys?”_ Lena blurted out offended.

“I don’t know, Prazza! Little Danvers wouldn’t... _I don’t know_! Just put your guns down!”

Slowly the remaining weapons lowered. Maggie stepped between the two groups a bit more, just in case, before turning back to her friend.

“Kara, it...it really is you isn’t it? They told us you had...that you were _dead_!”

“It’s a very long story,” Kara replied. “But yeah it’s me Maggie. Remember that time we ate our body weight in potstickers?”

“You mean when you accidentally poisoned me with non-dextro food?” Maggie teased, sounding both nostalgic and relived to see her old friend was the same.

The quarian stepped forward and abruptly hugged the commander tightly. Kara smiled and wound her free arm around her friend, squeezing back.

“It’s good to see you too,” the blonde said, understanding.

A moment later, Maggie released her and stepped back.

“When I heard you’d died, it felt like I’d lost a member of my _family_.”

“You mean soon to be sister-in-law?” Kara joked.

“W-What? No, me and your sister-” the quarian began before trailing off. Suddenly, her eyes widened noticeably, even behind the face plate. “Does _Alex_ even know you’re alive?!”

“No, I don’t think so,” Kara’s face fell. “Do you know where she is?”

“I...no, no, I-I talked to her briefly, just after I got the news. She...wasn’t herself Kara. We all just fell out of contact. _Keelah,_ if she knew you were alive!”

“This is all very fascinating, but don’t we have work to do?” Prazza interrupted.

Kara and Maggie’s combined glares were enough to make the male quarian falter slightly, as he took a cautious step backwards.

“Prazza is right,” Maggie admitted. “What are you doing here Kara?”

“We’re investing the missing colonists; did you see what happened to them?”

“No, we’re looking for a quarian named Veetor. He came to this place on his Pilgrimage. We received some nonsense distress signal from him less than a day or so ago.”

“He must have been taken with the rest of the colonists.”

“He wasn’t, we saw him briefly when our ship landed. He ran into the colony’s security offices and hid. We think he’s the one who hacked the mechs too; particularly a heavy one standing guard in the courtyard nearby.  We were just figuring a plan to reach him when you arrived.”

“He _ran_?” Jack questioned. “Why would one of your own run away from you?”

“Veetor was always a bit...nervous,” Maggie explained. “He may have been injured in the attack and had his suit compromised. If he’s ill or has a fever, he could be delusional.”

“He’s also the only witness to what may have happened here,” Lena told Kara.

“Sounds like we have the same goal here Maggie!” the commander chirped. “How many entrances does that courtyard have?”

“We are _not_ working with Cadmus!” Prazza snarled.

“ _We_ are working with my friend!” Maggie shot back angrily. “If you don’t like it, you can go wait on the ship and sulk like a baby _bosh’tet_!”

Kara resisted the urge to giggle at Maggie’s throw down and instead focused on the mission. She had really missed the quarian’s sass! She strolled over to the map they had drawn out.

“So how do we do this?”

“The heavy mech is right here,” Maggie replied, moving over and pointing at the map. “There are two main access points, here and here.  If you take the southern point, my team can come in from the north and we can hit it from both sides.”

“It should go down quick with that much heavy fire,” Jack agreed.

Kara looked down at the map and nodded. The path round to the south was longer, but there were only three of them compared to the six quarians. They should have no trouble covering more distance quicker. She clapped Maggie on her shoulder and gave her a lopsided smile.

“Alright _, Mags_ , see you on the other side.”

“Be careful, Little Danvers. See you shortly,” Maggie promised.

As they left the bio-labs and headed toward the other side of the colony to find Veetor, Lena shook her head.

“The quarians don’t like us, this could be trouble.”

“You mean the quarians don’t like _Cadmus_ ,” Kara snorted, before turning sarcastic. “I wonder why!”

“I know Maggi’Sawyah is your friend,” Lena continued, ignoring the commander’s sarcastic tone. “But she’s a quarian _first_. Are you sure we can trust her?”

Kara stopped abruptly and turned to face the operative, glaring at the woman for insinuating such a thing.

“I trust her with my life.” she retorted, placing her hands on her hips. “She’s earned it, but the jury’s still out on _you_!”

Kara couldn’t help but be angry with Lena. All this underlying tension and frustration that had been building between the two of them came spilling out.

“I saved your life, Kara, remember? Twice if I recall!” Lena snapped. “If I hadn’t woken you, you’d have died in that med-bay.”

Why did the Luthor have to look so hot when she was pissed off?

“You saved your _investment_ ,” Kara fired back, trying to ignore her hormones again. “And as long as you keep looking at me and seeing nothing but your ‘piece of work’ we having nothing further to discuss. We’re working with Maggie and the quarians, understood _operative_?"

“Yes commander,” Lena conceded through gritted teeth.

Kara turned on her heel and walked away, expecting the pair to follow. The air remained thick with tension until Jack, who’d had to stand there awkwardly as the two women’s fought, broke the silence by starting up a light conversation.

“So...potstickers are your favorite too, huh?”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you once again for all your kind comments! And yes, Lena and Kara are getting off on the wrong foot, but they'll get there eventually ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Each Supergirl character and their loosely based Mass Effect counterpart:  
> Kara = Shepard  
> Lena = Miranda  
> Alex = Garrus  
> Maggie = Tali  
> James = Kaidan  
> Winn = Joker  
> Sam = Liara  
> J'onn = Wrex  
> Lillian = The Illusive Man  
> Lex = Saren  
> Lucy = Ashley  
> Jack = Jacob  
> With more still to come! :)


End file.
